Hasnet Lais

Hasnet Lais is a freelance journalist, academic and commentator on religious affairs. His research interests include Political Islam and Muslims in the West. He has a Masters in Islamic Societies and Cultures from The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and has been published in openDemocracy, New Civilisation and emel - Britian's leading Muslim lifestyle magazine.

The saying “Beauty is only skin deep” has yet to register with many British South Asians. The view that fairness is synonymous with beauty is often peddled in the UK’s Asian community and in most cases, it’s the girls who bear the brunt of such racial snobbery.

After claiming the 44th win of his career, the undefeated streak of boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather continues. A future hall of famer, he may be the finest boxer of our generation since Sugar Ray Leonard and arguably one of the greatest pound for pound fighters to have laced a pair of gloves.

Almost 42 years since Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan, the ghosts of the bloody 1971 liberation war still haunt the nation. The bloodletting, rape and torture inflicted by Pakistani militias prevent many Bengalis to this day from treating the country’s road to freedom as just a tragic tale of the past.

You’d think after watching BBC Three’s Make me a Muslim documentary, being a female convert to Islam is so riddled with fault lines. Not really. My recent interviews with Muslim converts offered a rare glimpse into the lives of three women who would flatly reject such comparisons. And they’re all buzzing with spiritual ecstasy, retelling what caused them to halal-ify their wardrobes and Islamise dress codes.

As far as music genres go, few are as hotly contested as hip hop. It’s middle America’s favourite whipping boy, but one of corporate America’s most powerful marketing agents. In the midst of the cultural tug-of-war, battle rap has returned with a vengeance and today marches unchallenged as the leading movement in the hip-hop underground.
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As much as I tried to repress from memory a recent post in The Independent titled “Slut dropping’ and ‘Pimps and Hoes’ – the sexual politics of freshers’ week”, it rings true for some common Muslim anxieties with student life.

As sketchy details surface about one person who has been alleged on a US website to be the director of ‘Innocence of Muslims’, and a recent French cartoon depicting Muhammad in a postmodern satirical form, both filmmaker and cartoonist join a long list of Muhammad-baiting Islamophobes.

Just before his passing, the late Cardinal Carlo Martini spoke damningly about the Catholic Church. As a Muslim, I feel digging behind his statement unearths a wisdom which many British Imams will find hard to swallow. The Cardinal’s remark is relevant to circumstances obtaining for Muslims who are dogged by the same servility to tradition and spiritual malady plaguing Christians.